OffCoarse

Software as a Solution (SaaS) is in my mind the end of an era and the beginning of a new generation. This is not just my thinking it is way the software industry has turned. Just think in 5 years you wont buy computer software at Best Buy, or your local store, it will all be served over the Internet. You wont have to pay for software in lump sums, but pay on usage based scenarios, if you choose. Computers will not be storing data, but rather just pizza boxes where you can retrieve your data from your cloud server. The days of businesses having to buy software with huge upfront outlays, worry about storing data on their servers, and having system admins to install new employees computers with needed software, is all long gone. There is a day not to far away when you buy a computer and all you have to do is boot it up to have all of your programs, and data on that machine. Your browser will allow you to access all of your programs and data.

I have long felt this way about software, and love the saas model of delivering it. I am a huge fan of 37signals for their use of this model, and Salesforce.com as well. These guys get it, and now I will be taking on a job working for another great company who gets it. I will be joining the Pardot sales team on Monday. These guys get it, they have a great product which I am very excited to be behind. I will be selling solutions for businesses to help them with marketing automation so they can better utilize their sales efforts, and marketing programs. I have long talked about sales, marketing and startup technology and this job is going to allow me to dive into all of those area, and really use a lot of my skills. SaaS is the future for most businesses, and now I will bet apart of the next evolution in B2B software and very excited about it. So look for some more posts to come out about selling in the SaaS space, and some best practices as well.